Accretion of ice and frost on infrastructure is a multi-billion-dollar problem that adversely affects multiple industries worldwide, including aviation, electrical transmission, hydropower and almost all modes of transportation. For instance, the dynamic characteristics of aircraft flight can be significantly affected by ice accumulating on the airplane wings, resulting in severe damage and even plane crashes.
Frost also accumulates on refrigerators and heat exchangers. It has been found that this may reduce their heat transfer efficiency by as much as 50-75%.
Ice accretion on wind turbines can cause significant reduction in aerodynamic efficiency, with power losses up to 50%.
However, despite unprecedented advances in the fields of surface chemistry and micro/nanofabrication, no engineered surface, to date, has been able to passively suppress the in-plane growth of frost occurring in humid, subfreezing environments.